The last day of our trip

The palm island from the helicopter

The Burj al Arab Hotel

News reporting from the opening of the Burj Dubai

At Atlantis

Collin going down the huge water slide

Today is our last day in Dubai, and the last of our trip. Our flight leaves at 2:40am-there couldn't be a worst time for a flight...I don't think Doug will be able to stay awake!!

Yesterday was a great day. We did a day pass at Atlantis The Palm, a huge hotel with indoor water park and the biggest and scariest waterslides we have ever seen. The kids had such a blast, Collin rode the slides over 20 times--and he would have kept going. The hotel was beautiful and it was a relaxing and warm day.

For our last day today we took a 30 minute helicopter ride around Dubai. We saw all of the building going up and the landmarks. And the incredible palm island from the air as well as the world they built in sand. Just to think that 10 years ago where the palm is, there was nothing, not even the sand!

Today is the Grand Opening of the Burj Dubai. Can you believe we missed going up in the building by one day?! You can buy your tickets but the first people to go up won't be until tomorrow morning. There is all kinds of news agencies and people around the Burj and they are releasing 4,000 balloons today at 5pm. That will be neat to see.

We have had the best time on our trip. I lost my phone once and Olivia lost her ipod once--both left in taxi's, but Amazingly...we got them both back!! Other than that-no problems. We are all anxious to be home though, and sleep with our own pillows, pet our animals, and visit with friends and family. Thanks for checking in with us...Doug, Nicole, Collin, and Olivia

The waterslide at Atlantis-straight down!!.jpg

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Brrrr....It's cold in Dubai

At Ski Dubai

Doug going down the bobsled

The tallest building in the world...The Burj Dubai

We have been hearing so much about all of the snow and cold weather that Nebraska is having and we were all feeling a little down that we couldn't be a part of it. So what to do? Go skiing in the desert, of course! We headed out to one of the 8 Gigantic malls here in Dubai and went to "Ski Dubai", a huge indoor ski slope and winter park in the middle of the mall. They keep it at -5 degrees Celsius in there so we got a taste of what we are missing out on. But luckily we got to change back into our flip flops when the cold started getting to us.
There is no doubt why they nicknamed this place "Do Buy". The size of the mall (they have the largest in the world here) is unbelievable. Doug couldn't wait to get out of there...a shopper he is not...but I on the other hand could have done some damage! But I did not even walk into a single store, shameful don't you think?

We got to stop by the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, and took some photographs. The building was just completed but they haven't started letting anyone inside to go up to the top, so only got pictures from the outside. That was kind of a bummer, especially for Collin! We also took a nice creek ride on a dhow boat through the creek and it was really neat to be able to see all of the skyscrapers from the water. You also got a chance to see new Dubai and old Dubai, which is really a contrast. We also did some shopping in the cloth souk, gold souk, and my favorite the spice souk (shops). All of their spices are piled high in huge bags out front, so colorful. They have a spice or potion for every ailment you might have.

For dinner we spent an hour calling around to see if restaurants served beer, can you believe it is only allowed within a hotel? There hasn't been a single bar outside of a hotel in any Muslim country we have been too. And when we did see that sheik at the bar we got our picture with, he made sure the bartender took his photo with us without the drink in front of him...interesting!

Partying with the sheiks.jpg

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Dubai city from the dhow boat ride.jpg

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Do you think Doug likes camel.jpg

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Yummy Camel Burger.jpg

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ready to eat a camel burger in Dubai.jpg

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kite boarding.jpg

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Happy New Year!

I can't believe it is the year 2010! We celebrated our new year a little ahead of schedule as we had an airport pickup at 4:30am. But that was okay--we enjoyed seeing the huge blue moon over the Abu Tiga marina in El Gouna. The kids had so much fun playing at kids park there, they went there 3 days in a row and met several other English, and Egyptian kids that they played with. I think they were happy to be talking and running around with kids for awhile as they have been stuck with us adults for quite some time now.
El Gouna was great and relaxing. The last 2 days there were just relaxation. We enjoyed some good sun at the beach and watched the numerous kite surfers on the Red Sea. I got some shopping done and really just walked around and checked out the town.
This morning we said goodbye to our villa and Jeff and Tami as they are heading back to Nebraska and the snow. We have 5 more days of vacation left. We landed in Dubai this afternoon around 1pm and just spending the rest of day taking getting unpacked and going to bed early. We are staying in a 2 bedroom apartment/hotel which is spacious enough and has a microwave!! We have been hauling this microwaveable popcorn around for the last few weeks and can finally make it. I have popped 3 bags already for the kids tonight.
Dubai seems just like we thought. Very clean and wealthy. Huge skyscrapers, all new taxis waiting at the hotel ready for the tourists. Can't wait to see it tomorrow. We plan on taking a city tour and heading up to the tallest building in the world.
Hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve, and having a great New Year's Day. I am missing all of these bowl games though--just not as much fun when you have to keep checking scores on the internet instead of seeing it live on TV.